This August, Hockey Canada will be hosting its summer training camp, a tune up for the World Junior Championships that take place at the end of the calendar year. The Islanders will have “only” two defensive prospects at the camp after 2012 third round pick Adam Pelech pulled out due to a wrist injury.

“Pelech has withdrawn from Hockey Canada’s World Junior summer camp because his wrist, which was surgically repaired for the third time this past May 1, didn’t heal as quickly as initially expected. Pelech had surgery to fix a bone that hadn’t healed properly.

…“It ended up taking about 11 (weeks). If it would have taken eight or nine weeks, I probably would have been able to play (in the WJC camp),” said Pelech, who originally fractured his wrist early in the 2011-12 Ontario Hockey League season. He underwent the first surgery shortly after suffering the injury, and then the second procedure in May 2012 to remove a screw inserted during the first procedure. “It should be the last (surgery),” he said. “This time they got it right.”

Pelech said he hasn’t suffered a setback in his recovery. He wants to take more time to heal so he will be fully healthy for opening day of Otters training camp Aug. 27 at Mercyhurst Ice Center.

It’s a little unsettling to hear the player say something like, “this time they got it right,” but the injury didn’t seem to hamper Pelech this past season. He had 40 points in 59 games on Erie’s blueline, a career high.

It says something about the top-level talent in the Islanders defensive prospect pool that they will “only” have two defenders headed to Canada’s WJC Development Camp this August. With Pelech out, first round picks Griffin Reinhart and Ryan Pulock will represent the team.

Players that go in the top half of the first round like Reinhart and Pulock are sort-of expected to be at a camp like this — it would be more of a head turner if they weren’t invited — but for a third-rounder like Pelech getting this sort of attention, the Islanders may have pulled a diamond out of the relative rough of third round. Regardless, they should have a couple talented defenders coming up through the ranks over the next couple of years.